Antoine Fuqua Directing Boxing Drama ‘Southpaw’ This Summer

Antoine Fuqua’s impressive resume of Manly Movies seems to only grow stronger.  Right now he’s applying the finishing touches to The Equalizer, which apparently blew the roof off an early screening and was Sony’s most popular R-Rated movie ever tested.  After that he’ll go to work on boxing drama ‘Southpaw’, which will go before cameras this summer.  The movie will star Jake Gyllenhaal and it will be written by Kurt Sutter.

The movie is a story of a welterweight champion who rises in his profession while his personal life falls apart.  It’ll be produced by the Weinstein Company.  Still to cast is the other lead, Titus ‘Tick’ Willis, a former fighter who was forced to retire after losing an eye and was on his way to becoming a pro trainer but retreated after his son was killed.

This means and confirms that Fuqua will not return to direct London Has Fallen, which is going to begin shooting in Bulgaria at the beginning of May.  Gerard Butler and company will arrive in Bulgaria late next month to prepare for that movie.  A shame to see Fuqua not return for that sequel but if it meant missing The Equalizer and trying the boxing genre, it probably would’ve been worth it.